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HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
GEORGE FRANCIS DOW
HISTORY OF
TOPSFIELD
MASSACHUSETTS
By GEORGE FRANCIS DOW
NEW
M
SHENEW
MEADOWS .
TOPSFIELD
1650.
TOPSFIELD, MASS.
THE TOPSFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1940
REPRINTED 1999
THE PERKINS PRESS TOPSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
FOUR HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED
REPRINTED 1982
BY The Merriam-Eddy Company, Inc. South Waterford, ME 04081
REPRINTED 1999
BY ACME BOOKBINDING Charlestown, Ma 02129
ONE HUNDRED COPIES
COMPLETED IN MEMORY OF GEORGE FRANCIS DOW IN FULFILLMENT OF HIS LIFELONG AMBITION
PREFACE
For over forty years the author collected material relating to Topsfield with the intention of publishing a comprehensive history of the town. At the time of his death he had outlined the work and written many of the chapters. It has been my privilege to carry on the work with the assistance of a group of W.P.A. workers and Miss Ruth H. Allen who has written the remaining chapters. I have edited the manuscript, pre- pared the index and read the proofs.
Much information was gleaned from the Probate and Quart- erly Court Records of Essex County, and the lists of soldiers in the French and Indian wars and the Revolution were care- fully checked with the rolls in the Massachusetts State Archives. It is hoped that it may be possible at some future time to print the chapters on houses and lands and on the families of Topsfield which have been so carefully prepared.
Publication was made possible by the Topsfield Historical Society, with generous assistance from the Town. Grateful appreciation is due the Trustees of the Salem Public Library for their cooperation in providing a room for the W.P.A. workers, and to all others who have assisted in any way.
ALICE G. Dow
CONTENTS
I
THE SETTLEMENT
1 21
II
THE EARLY SETTLERS
COMMON LANDS
53
III IV TOWN GOVERNMENT V EARLY HOUSES AND HOME LIFE
73
VI
HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES
98
VII MILITARY AFFAIRS
124
VIII FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS
140
IX X
THE REVOLUTION
198
XI
THE CIVIL WAR
206
XII THE WORLD WAR
231
XIII
THE MEETING HOUSES
246
XIV
THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
271
XV
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
286 294
XVI XVII
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLHOUSES
296
XVIII
TOPSFIELD ACADEMY
313
XIX
THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION
320
XX XXI TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
343
XXII TAVERNS AND HOTELS
368
XXIII
THE TOPSFIELD COPPER MINES
378
XXIV THE FRENCH ACADIANS IN TOPSFIELD
387
XXV THE POST-OFFICE AND EARLY POSTMASTERS
393
XXVI THE TURNPIKE AND THE STAGECOACH
399
XXVII
THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD
407
XXVIII
PHYSICIANS AND MEDICAL PRACTICE 418
XXIX
CEMETERIES AND BURYING-GROUNDS 430
XXX
LIBRARIES 437
XXXI THE TOPSFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE 444
XXXII
PRINTING AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 451
XXXIII THE TOPOGRAPHY OF TOPSFIELD 475 INDEX 480
POOR AND STRANGERS
354
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
167
THE TOPSFIELD WARREN BLUES
81
1
ILLUSTRATIONS
GEORGE FRANCIS DOW
Frontispiece
GOVERNOR ENDECOTT 48
THE STONE BRIDGE
120
UNIFORM OF THE WARREN BLUES
200
TOPSFIELD COMMON, LOOKING NORTH
288
TOPSFIELD COMMON, LOOKING SOUTH
312
THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE 448
FRONT DOOR OF THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE
448
FRONT ENTRY OF THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE 448
KITCHEN OF THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE 448
1
HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
CHAPTER I
THE SETTLEMENT
The town of Topsfield, Massachusetts, lies in the center of Essex County, with Ipswich adjoining on the east. It is nearly twenty-five miles north of Boston, twelve miles south of the Merrimac river and has an area of 8320 acres. The Ipswich river flows through it. In the early days this river was called the Agawam,1 from the tribe of Indians who fre- quented its banks and the locality was known by them as She-ne-we-medy, which may be translated as "The pleasant place by the flowing waters." The early settlers called it "New Meadows," because it lay beyond the West Meadows in Ipswich, and had extensive meadows along the banks of the river, the grass on which was of much importance in the absence of cleared land on which hay and grain for cattle, could be grown. Like its namesake in the County of Essex, England, Topsfield has within its bounds some of the highest land in the County. The Pierce Farm hill rises 280 feet above the sea level and Great hill and Town hill are both over 260 feet. The Newburyport turnpike (United States Route No. 1) passes through Topsfield and over shoulders of these hills. Hood's pond, in the northern part of the town, lies partly in Ipswich, and covers an area of sixty-eight acres.
The settlement of the town of Topsfield came about as a natural development in the growth of the new plantation at Agawam, afterwards named Ipswich "in acknowledgment of the great honor and kindness done to our people who
1 "A faire and delightful River, whose first rise or spring be- gins about five and twenty miles farther up in the Country, issu- ing forth a very pleasant pond, But soone after it betakes its course through a most hideous swamp of large extent, even for many miles, being a great Harbour for Braves, after its comming forth this place, it groweth larger by the income of many small Rivers, and issues forth in the Sea, due East over against the Isles of Sholes, a great place of fishing for our English Nation." Edwin Johnson: Wonder-working Providence, London, 1654.
(1)
2
THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
took shipping there." "About the end of the year 1632, was discovered a very desirable tract of land, ten miles to the north-eastward of Salem, called by the Indians Agawam, a place since its first discovery much increased with a great number of inhabitants, both planters and other artificers." So wrote the Rev. William Hubbard of Ipswich in his "His- tory of New England" to the year 1680.
In January, 1633, Governor Winthrop and the Court of Assistants in Boston, were informed that the French had plant- ed new settlements at the eastward and preparations had been made to bring over more settlers the next year, "with divers, priests and Jesuits among them,"-alarming news that led to the finishing of the fort in Boston and the building of another fort at Nantasket. The Court also ordered that the Governor's son John and twelve other men go to Agawam to hasten a settlement "at one of the most commodious places in the county for cattle and tillage, lest an enemy should prevent them by taking possession of the place." So wrote Rev. Wil- liam Hubbard, the Ipswich minister, in his "History of New England." Four of this company of thirteen men afterwards were granted land in the back country that in time became known as Topsfield, and one of them, William Perkins, some years later lived there and preached to the settlers before a church was organized.
For some time English fishermen had known of the bay at the mouth of the river and as early as 1608, one Captain Har- low, in the ship Ordinance, had landed here and been kindly received by "the people at Agawam." Capt. John Smith, in his "Description of New England" (London, 1616) relates that he visited Angowam in 1614 and observed "many rising hills : and on their tops and descents, many corne fields and delightful groves .
also Okes, Pines, and other Woods to make this place an excellent habitation." The Pilgrims shivering in their confined quarters on board the Mayflower, had heard of Agawam and on reaching Cape Cod debated whether or no they should make their settlement on the more northern shore of the Massachusetts Bay, where there was "an excellent harbor for ships, better ground and better fishing." The fishing settlement at Cape Ann undoubtedly knew in 1624 of the fishing ground at the mouth of the Agawam and settlers had squatted on the future town site as early as the summer of 1630 for the Court of Assistants on Sept. 7, 1630, ordered "that a warrant shall presently be sent to Aggawam to com- mand those that are planted there forwith to come away."
3
THE SETTLEMENT
THE INDIANS
The Agawam country, lying about the river of that name and extending westward into the forest, was then occupied by the remnants of a small tribe of Indians of the same name whose sagamore or chief was Masconomet.
The tribe probably numbered considerably less than one hundred persons at the time Ipswich was settled, a malignant disease that raged in the winter and summer of 1616 having practically destroyed all the shore tribes from Penobscot river to Narragansett Bay. This disease probably originated with English fishermen visiting the coast and may have been small pox. Higginson, the Salem minister, wrote in 1628, that "the greatest Saggamores about us can not make above three hun- dred men, and other lesse Saggamores have not above fifteen subjects, and others neere about us but two." He described the Indian houses or wigwams as "verie little and homely, being made with small poles pricked into the ground, and so bended and fastened at the tops, and on the sides they are matted with boughs and covered on the roofs with sedge and old mats, and for their beds that they take their rest on, they have a mat . . They have little household stuffe, as a kettle, and some other vessels like trayes, spoones, dishes and baskets."
The territorial limits of the Agawam tribe extended from the sea to Will's hill in what is now Middleton. To the west of that lived the Massachusetts tribe. The Agawams claimed the land north of Danvers river, the whole of Cape Ann, and thence to the Merrimack river. Nanepashemet, the sagamore of the Massachusetts tribe, lived at Saugus. To the eastward lived the Tarratines, a warlike tribe that came up the coast and attacked the Agawams in August 1631. 2 Governor Winthrop in his diary states that the enemy, numbering about one hun- dred warriors, "in the night assaulted the wigwam of the sag- amore of Agawam by Merimack, and slew seven men and wounded John Sagamore, and James, and some others (where- of some died after) and rifled a wigwam where Mr. Craddock's men kept to catch sturgeon, and took away their nets and biscuit, etc."
Two years later, in 1633, the Tarratines came again with the intention of destroying the small settlement just begun at Agawam (Ipswich). The Rev. Thomas Cobbett, afterwards
2 Rev. William Hubbard of Ipswich, in his History of New England states this attack was due to the fact that the "Saga- more of Agawam (as was usually said) had treacherously killed some of those Tarrantine's families, and Therefore was the less pitied of the English that were informed thereof."
4
THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
minister at Ipswich, preserved an account of the proposed attack as related to him in later years by John Perkins, whose brother Thomas, married Phebe, daughter of Zaccheus Gould and settled in Topsfield where many of his descendants still live. Mr. Cobbett's "Narrative of New England's Deliver- ances," was written to Rev. Increase Mather in 1677 and is printed in the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register," Vol. VII, p. 209. It well illustrates the danger from Indians that culminated in 1675, in King Philip's War. "In the first planting of Ipswich (as a credible man in- formed me, namely, Quartermaster Perkins), the Terrateens or Easterly Indians had a design to cut them off at the first, when they had but between 20 or 30 men, old and young, be- longing to the place (and at that instant most of the men gone into the Bay about their occasions, not hearing of any intima- tions thereof). It was thus one Robin, a friendly Indian, came to this John Perkins, then a young man, living then in a little hut upon his father's Island, on this side of Jeofrye's Neck, and told him that on such a Thursday morning, early, there would come four Indians, to draw him to goe down the Hill to the waterside, to trade with them, which if he did, he and all neare him would be cut off : for there were 40 burchen canoues, would lie out of sight, in the brow of the Hill, full of Armed Indians for that purpose: of this he forthwith acquaints Mr. John Winthrop, who then lived there, in a howse neare the water, who advised him if such Indians came, to carry it rug- gedly towards them, and threaten to shoot them if they would not be gone, and when theyr backs were turned to strike up the drum he had with him, besides his two muskets, and then to discharge them; that those six or eight young men, who were in the marshes hard by a mowing, haveing theyr guns each of them ready charged, by them, might take the Alarme, and the Indians would perceive thevr plot was discovered : and haste away to sea againe: which was accordingly so acted and tooke like effect: for he told me, he presently after dis- covered 40 such canoes sheare off from under the Hill, and make as fast as they could to sea."
Masconomet, the sagamore of the Agawams when the set- tlers reached their territory, had welcomed Governor Win- throp on his arrival in Salem harbor in 1630 and always was peaceably disposed. June 28, 1638 he signed a deed releasing all claim to "the Right, property and Cleame, I have or ought to have vnto all the land lying and being in the Bay of Aga- wam, alls Ipswich being Soe called now by the English. . . . and I herby relinquish all the Rhight and Interest I have vnto
5
THE SETTLEMENT
all the Hauens Rivers Creekes Islands, huntings and fishings with all the woodes Swampes Timber and whatsoever ells, is or may be in or vpon the said ground to me Belonging."
In consideration for this transfer of title to land that reached from the Merrimack to the Chebacco rivers and west- ward to the land of the Massachusetts tribe, John Winthrop, jr., paid the Sagamore the sum of twenty pounds. The original document remained in the possession of the Winthrop family until 1899 when it was deposited in the Essex Institute at Salem. It was recorded in the Ipswich Registry of Deeds (Book IV, page 383) the day it was signed by Masconomet, who made his mark resembling a letter S. It was also re- corded in the town records of Ipswich and in 1701 recorded in the town records of Topsfield.
In the spring of 1639 Masconomet went to Boston and appeared before the General Court where he acknowledged that he had been paid £20, by Mr. Winthrop and that he was fully satisfied and in November of that year the Court ordered "That Ipswich should satisfy Mr. Winthrope for the £20 paid the Indian for his right." This was done by granting him three hundred acres of land that was layed out partly in the New Meadows, the larger part, however, being in what is now Linebrook Parish, Ipswich. This grant of land Win- throp sold for £250, in 1642, to Edward Parke, merchant taylor, of London, who in turn sold to John Appleton and Richard Jacob in 1655.
Masconomet died before June 18, 1658 and was buried on Sagamore hill, in what is now Hamilton. His gun and other implements were buried with him. Nine years later two Ipswich young men opened the grave of the sagamore and afterwards carried the skull about on a pole for which in- humanity one of them was ordered to sit in the stocks for one hour and then to be imprisoned until he paid a fine of £6.13.4. The skull and such bones as could be found were to be buried again by the two men. The one who was punished had bragged that "he would make a grease pot of the skull for his wife."
The deed signed by Masconomet in 1639 relinquished title to the lands at the New Meadows (Topsfield) and was con- sidered a full and legal transfer. The early colonial courts also held that the Indians had only a right of occupancy. Governor Winthrop had written before he left England - "as for the Natives in New England, they inclose noe Land, neither have any setled habytation, nor any Tame cattle to improve the Land, by, & soe have noe other but a Naturall Right to those Countries. Soe as if we leave them sufficient
6
THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
for their use, wee may lawfully take the rest, there being more then enough for them & us." 3
In the winter of 1700/1, Samuel English, Joseph English, and John Umpee, three grandsons of Masconomet, claimed title to his land and went about Essex County making de- mands on the towns. The evidence seems to show that two Englishmen living in Chelmsford, were the brains behind this claim as they acted as attorneys for the Indians. The Colony charter having been revoked by the King and the question of the colonists' title to their lands having been raised it seemed wise to grasp at every straw in order to strengthen their position and so the demands of the Indians were recog- nized. Town meetings were held and committees appointed to treat with the renegade colonists from Chelmsford and their Indian clients. Newbury paid them £10, Beverly, £6.6.8, Manchester, £3.19.0, Gloucester, £7, Wenham, £4.16.0, Boxford, £9, Rowley, £9, and Bradford, £3.10.0.
Topsfield held a town meeting Feb. 10, 1700-1, to consider the claim of the Indians and appointed a committee with full power to settle their demands. The committee chosen for this purpose was Capt. John Gould, Lieut. Thomas Baker, Capt. John How, Ensign Samuel Howlett, and Isaac Peabody. Samuel English, speaking for the other Indians, agreed to give the town a quit claim deed of Topsfield territory for three pounds in money and although Masconomet's deed included this territory it was thought best to settle with the grandson of the old chief. The description in the 1639 deed is very in- definite and this may have caused the committee to arrive at their decision. The deed executed by Samuel English is dated March 28, 1701 and is recorded in the town records as follows :
know all cristian people by thes preasents that whareas I Samuel Inglish Indian Heir to Musquanomenit Sagamore of Agawom for and in consideration of three pounds in mony in hand payd to my full sattisfaction doe absolutly quit claime to ye Towne of Topsfield of all my right : that I haue had or euer might haue had : within ye bound or limmits of ye Towne of Topsfield : as it hath bene by Genarell Court established and to which land by vertue of my afore said heirship I doe look upon my self as the rightfull owner of : also I doe hereby oblidge my selfe Heirs Executers: &c: to ye Towne of Tops- field to defend them in thare posestion and in Joyment of ye aforesaid premises for euer and to bare them harmless and in damnifye from any other persons whatsoeuer whether Eng-
3 Life and Letters of John Winthrop, Vol. I, pp. 311, 312.
7
THE SETTLEMENT
lish or Indian that shall lay anny claime to ye premisis or any part thare of that hather to bene improued or posesed by ye Towne aforesaid : by vertue of any Indian title or conuev- ence I ye aforesaid Samuell English doe a gaine declare that in considerasion of three pounds corrent mony in hand paid by a committy apointe by ye Towne of Topsfield to agree with mee in behalfe of said Towne : doe for my selfe any Heirse &c : renounce and Relinquish : all my reall or sopesed Right with in ye limmits aforesaid : and doe hereby confirme to ye com- mitty aforesaid : in behalfe of said Towne and to thare Heirs &c : for euer : (ye names of ye comity being Capt. John Gould Lieut Thomas Baker Capt. John How Ens Samuell Howlet and Isaac Pabody) ye afore said premises : and yt it shall be lawfull to and for ye said Towne for euer here after to haue hould quietly and peaceably in Joy ye premises thay thare heirs Executors Administrators and asigns foreuer in testi- mony whare of I ye said Samuell English haue here vnto set my hand and seale: this twenty eight day of march anno deming one thousand seuen hundred and one: and in ye thirtenth yeare of his maiastie's Reigne William the third of England &c
signeed sealed and diliuered
in ye preasence of witnesses Joseph Capen John Pricherd Nathaniell Pearly
ye mark of S English
Indians lived in and about Topsfield for some years follow- ing the settlement and after a time learned to work for the white men; but they were shiftless and indolent and easily became drunkards. The General Court ordered that no one should sell strong drink to an Indian nor, in the course of trading, give them any, but there was much evasion of the law. Daniel Clarke kept a tavern in his house that formerly stood where Bailey's Block is now located and in 1678 he was summoned to Court at Ipswich for selling strong drink to an Indian. John How and Peter Shumway testified they saw "Jeremiah Indian, the tinker come from Daniel Clarke's so disguised with drink that he could not goe : but fell downe in the hi waye." They went to Clarke and "Told him he did not well to let Indians have drink : for the Indian said he had five gills of rum last night. Daniel Clarke said 'I let him have one Gill and no more:' further he told us that som sider and kake and small bere I made, made him drunk today." Clarke owned it to be true and was fined.
8
THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
The last mention of an Indian in the town records is when the town voted to allow "to ye widow Hannah Herrick two pounds thirteen shillings and four pence lawfull money for taking care of Samll Tutoos ten weeks in his last sickness." Samuell Tutoo, "free indian," died Sept. 5, 1750.
Indian stone implements in considerable number, have been found from time to time, within the borders of Topsfield, and excellent specimens have been presented to the Peabody Mu- seum at Salem and are there on exhibition. Fish brook was much frequented by the Indians and even at the present day it is easy to find along a sandy stretch between River Road and Washington Street chippings of two kinds of stone pro- duced when the Indians flaked arrow heads and spear points. Beside Washington Street, not far from the bridge over Fish brook, is a conical knoll, once used by the town as a gravel pit. Some eight inches below the surface, at the highest point, as the hill had been dug away, the author once found evidence of beacon fires, blackened soil and bits of charcoal.
Fish brook or Fishing brook, was so called in the very earliest days of the settlement and very likely the name was derived from the Indians, known to have frequented it. William Wood in his "New England's Prospect" (London, 1634) while writing of the habits of the Indians living in Essex County, remarks that they were expert fishermen "knowing when to fish in rivers, when at rocks and when at seas." In winter they would fish in the fresh water rivers and ponds and "in frostie weather they cut. round holes in the yce, about which they will sit like so many apes, on their naked breeches upon the congealed yce, catching of Pikes, Pearches, Breames, and other sorts of fresh water fish."
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN
John Winthrop, jr., and his little company, left Boston in March 1633, for the Agawam town site. There were no roads and undoubtedly they sailed up the coast in a shallop. English wigwams and other made shelters were constructed and more settlers soon began to arrive and with them women and chil- dren, and all kinds of implements and supplies needed in a new settlement. The rapid growth that followed may be estimated from the circumstances attending the death of one of these new comers, John Dillingham, who removed from Boston in November 1634, with his wife and young daughter, accompanied by an indentured servant and a maid, who not only helped with the housework but also worked in the
9
THE SETTLEMENT
fields. The selectmen of Ipswich at once granted Dillingham six acres of land on which to build a house. He died the fol- lowing winter and his wife died the next year, leaving a two- room house, with out-buildings; one hundred acres of upland, meadow and planting ground; apple trees and other fruit trees fenced off in the garden ; a mare, three cows, two steers, two heifers, four calves and four pigs. The house was well supplied with furniture and utensils; with a silver bowl and porringer and 401/2 pounds of pewter. Dillingham left a coat with silver buttons, a red waistcoat, etc. and in one of his chests were eight books, all of a religious character. The en- tire estate was inventoried at £382.14.5, and this was only three years removed from the unsettled wilderness.
One of the contributing causes that influenced emigration to New England was the desire to own house and land. Those who arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were mainly of middle class - the tenantry and yeomanry, with many inden- tured servants - men who had never owned a foot of land in England; and the self-evident fact that countless thousands of acres in New England awaited their coming and to be had for the asking, undoubtedly fired the imagination and crysta- lized the determination of many an Englishman dissatified with the religious and economic conditions that hampered his freedom of thought and action. Those who contributed to the general stock of the Company were to receive allotments of land at the rate of two hundred acres for each £50, adven- tured. Each person who came over at his own expense was to be alloted fifty acres of land for each one of his family ; and for every servant he had brought over, another fifty acres. Accordingly, the granting of a house lot in the center of the town site, with additional acres elsewhere for cultivation, and development, was the first and most important business of the town. This happened in Ipswich and as time went on and the newcomers increased in number, all available land near the town site was allotted and grants of land were made in more remote locations.
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